1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to systems, methods and structures for reducing the likelihood of contamination of processed foods by bacteria, other microorganisms, or other pathogens.
2. Related Art
As food quality, sanitation and refrigeration practices have become better, the presence in processed foods of most common bacteria that affect food safety has been substantially reduced. While this has improved food safety overall, it presents the opportunity for more marginalized, less common bacteria and other food pathogens, which are otherwise unable to compete with such more common bacteria, to proliferate and colonize food product(s) as they are processed. For example, Listeria monocytogenes (hereafter “LM” or “Listeria”), which is inhibited by competition from more common bacteria, and thus naturally prevented from reaching fatal concentrations, is sometimes able to colonize food product(s) as they are being processed. Because Listeria, unlike more common bacteria and other food pathogens, is able to grow well in refrigerated conditions, and because most, if not all, competing bacteria have been eliminated from the food product(s) being processed, there is little or no competition to the Listeria bacteria to keep it from growing to fatal concentrations when Listeria contaminates food.
At the same time, the U.S. government has instituted numerous programs and testing regimes to ensure that food products are pathogen-free, i.e., are not adulterated. For example, the presence of a food pathogen on a ready-to-eat meat product renders the meat product adulterated under the provisions of the Meat Inspection Act and/or the Poultry Inspection Act. If adulterated, the ready-to-eat meat product cannot be shipped. Additionally, if the ready-to-eat meat product has already been shipped, it must be recalled. Moreover, in most, if not all, conventional food processing facilities, even if the source of adulteration of a particular lot of food product can be traced to a single processing element, such as a food slicer, in that food processing facility, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine which particular food items may have come in contact with that source of adulteration. As a result, the typical recall involves all products passing through a food processing facility during the time of potential adulteration to ensure that no adulterated food product remains available for sale to the ultimate consumer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has determined, for example, that Listeria is a hazard reasonably likely to occur in a slicing operation. Slicing operations are relatively high risk because pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes is ubiquitous and grows at refrigerated temperatures. Thus, because Listeria is ubiquitous, it is very difficult to prevent Listeria from colonizing processed food product(s) at points between an upstream lethality treatment and a downstream packaging operation, such as at a slicing operation. Furthermore, because sliced meats are “ready-to-eat”, they are typically removed from packaging and consumed without any consumer-applied lethality treatment, such as cooking.